Two big milestones happened for Danielle and Carter this week. Danielle sat up by herself for the first time on May 31st, at 5 months of age, and Carter is now sleeping in his toddler bed. Danielle's milestone is wonderful and comes without any headache to myself or Ken. Carter outgrowing his crib, on the hand, is a different story. Before I get to that, here are a few pictures and a video of Danielle sitting on her own.
It all started a few days back when I decided to try and nap the two of them together at the same time. They were both tired and I wanted to try to get Danielle used to sleeping in her crib AND used to sleeping in the same room with her big brother. I put Danielle in her crib first, then went downstairs to get Carter. I brought him into the room and laid him in his crib. Danielle had been so quiet that Carter didn't even notice she was in her crib. When I closed the door, they both started jabbering away. Carter was obviously surprised by the sound of Danielle's little voice from the opposite side of the room. I heard him protest. He didn't like her in there at first. I stuck to my guns and decided to wait it out a bit longer. Maybe, just maybe, they would talk each other to sleep.
Danielle's jabbering soon turned to full blown crying, and after 10 minutes of listening to it, I decided to go in and get her. I picked her up and rocked her in the rocking chair for a few moments to calm her down. Carter, who had not gone to sleep yet, was now standing up in his crib watching us curiously. I could tell he wanted out of there too. What I didn't expect to see him do, right there in front of me, was try to escape. I told him no. Realizing that this had now disrupted his nap, I decided to take both of them downstairs. Carter would play for a few minutes longer before I would try to put him back down for his nap.
After 10 minutes or so, I took him back upstairs to his crib, alone this time. He didn't like it one bit. When I left the room, he had a fit. If was definitely time for a nap. Unruly toddler behavior = nap time! I headed back downstairs. I was even down there 5 minutes when I heard this loud thud. I ran upstairs to Carter's room and whipped open the door. Sure enough, there he was running around his room free as a bird! I'm sure my jaw dropped to the floor at that point. His crib had already been lowered to the lowest possible setting. How the heck did he get out? He's tall, but not THAT tall! If you know anything about my son, you know he's a very willful, stubborn, determined, fearless and STRONG little boy. These characteristics together spell Trouble with a capital T.
He never got his afternoon nap that day. I was afraid to put him back in there. That night he slept just fine and did not try to escape. At nap time the following afternoon, when I heard him climb out of his crib for the second time, I knew it was time to take down his crib. Ken stopped at Babies R Us and bought all kinds of child-proofing necessities including door locks and doorknob covers. Ken converted Carter's crib over to the toddler bed that evening and made his room safe. We brought him upstairs to check it out. He loved it! I spent about 30 minutes in his room with him to let him explore. Here are some pictures and a video of him checking everything out.
Later that night, when we put him to bed, he cried for about 10 minutes. After that, we could hear him running around playing for about a half hour. Then, finally, he fell asleep. Ken peaked in on him after a few hours to make sure he was actually asleep in his crib, and not on the floor somewhere. Yes, he was in there sleeping like a good boy. However, he must've moved sometime in the middle of the night because when Ken got him up the next morning, he was crying and laying on the floor. The same thing happened to me when I napped him later that day. This time, I don't think he slept in his bed at all. By the looks of the carpet marks on his cheek - he had been on the floor the whole time.
The second night, last night, he went to bed without a fight. He slept til 4 a.m. and then woke up screaming. Ken went in there and calmed him down and laid him back in his bed. I'm not sure if he was crying over his new bed or if his teeth are bothering him. He has some molars coming in right now and I'm sure that's causing a lot of pain. This process is definitely harder than I thought it would be. I honestly wasn't prepared for this yet. I thought the next big thing to do was potty training! Carter definitely keeps me on my toes. I never know what he's gonna do next.
I failed to mention one other thing that happened yesterday. Carter actually climbed over the baby gate by our front door that blocks off the stairs to the 2nd floor. I have no idea how he managed this, but I definitely don't want it to happen again. There is no carpeting on the other side of that gate, so I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant landing. Like I said earlier, I'm so not ready for this. Just when I think I can get a break from things, he stirs up the pot once again.
On a more positive note, Danielle had her first taste of infant rice cereal a few days ago. She took it pretty well. In another month I'm planning on introducing some fruits and vegetables to her diet. I'm excited for that stage of her development and am planning on making homemade baby food for her. I got a book out at the library that has recipes and shows how to do it yourself.
Danielle is also talking a lot more. Her initial sounds were a lot of "Ahhhs" and now she is making "Ohhh" and "Owww" and "Ahh Goo" sounds. It's so neat how her language is developing. Just yesterday she started growling for the first time! Carter used to do that when he was a baby. Except her growl sounds more like E.T. It's very funny. I'm going to try to get it on video.
